Six-word Story Assignment
1. Come up with six words to tell your audience something meaningful about your experiences with
scholastic journalism. Why is it important? What does it mean to you? How has your life changed as a
result of being involved with the journalism program?
2. Shoot videos and take photos that will help illustrate your six-word story. Be sure to shoot
horizontally!
3. Edit the videos/photos together using iMovie or other video editing software. Include your six words
somewhere in the video—they may be spaced throughout the video or placed at the beginning or end.
Six-word Story Rubric
Name:
Your six words:
Written Content
Visual Content
Length
Comments:
3
Story includes six
words, free of
mechanical errors, that
convey a
meaningful/powerful
message about
scholastic
journalism/your
experiences on the staff.
Videos and/or photos
illustrate the message
and add to its
effectiveness. All videos
are shot horizontally.
Editing is smooth/not
distracting.
Story is the “perfect”
length (doesn’t feel too
long or too short)—it’s
about 30 seconds to one
minute.
2
Story includes six
words, free of
mechanical errors,
that convey a
message about
scholastic
journalism/your
experiences on the
staff.
Videos and/or
photos illustrate the
message. Most
videos are shot
horizontally. Editing
is usually
smooth/not
distracting.
Story needs to be
edited down or have
content added—it’s
shorter than 30
seconds or longer
than 90 seconds.
1
Story includes six
words that convey a
message about
scholastic
journalism/your
experiences on the
staff. The message is
unclear or contains
mechanical errors.
Videos and/or
photos are included,
but they may not be
related to the
message. Videos are
shot vertically.
Editing is
distracting.
Story is way too
short or too long—
it’s shorter than 15
seconds or longer
than two minutes.
0
Five words? Seven
words?? Really???
Calling this black
screen “minimalism”
won’t work this time.
I blinked and missed
it. Or I took a nap and
it’s still going.